Traditional wireline telephone services (i.e., telephones connected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN)) have been and are, in most cases, still provided by local telecommunications service providers. As alternative telecommunications services have become more prevalent in recent years, consumers have opted to switch to the alternative telecommunication services as their primary telecommunication services and, in many cases, drop or simply do not install wireline telephone services at their residences. Alternative telecommunication services include mobile telephone services and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) telephone services, for example.
While these alternative telecommunication services suffice to provide reliable communications for users, one problem that occurs for alternative telecommunication services is power outages. Power outages mostly occur (i) in the western part of the United States during “blackouts” and “rolling brown outs” when energy supply is low and demand is high, and (ii) in the southeastern United States from hurricane damage. Other weather and non-weather events, such as floods, tornadoes, thunderstorms, and emergency situations, can cause power outages. As understood, the PSTN or wireline telephone services may enable wireline telephones to operate during power outages.
Unlike wireline telecommunications services, power outages affect alternative telecommunications by causing the telephones (e.g., mobile telephones, handsets and computers operating soft phones) to be limited to battery power. In the event that a power outage lasts for even a few hours, most devices of alternative telecommunications services run out of battery power, thereby leaving users without telephone services.
While users who opt for alternative telecommunications services may face challenges in the event of power outages, local telecommunications service providers that lose customers due to customers choosing alternative telecommunications services also lose the ability to market products and services to those customers and residences after a certain period of time (i.e., “win back” period of time), as provided by laws and regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Furthermore, after a customer cancels wireline telephone service, the local telecommunications service provider typically physically disables the wireline telephone line to reduce overhead and expenses for maintenance. In some cases, “warm lines” are maintained at residences and paid by the service provider in hopes of the former or new customer at the residence wanting to turn wireline telephone service back on. However, warm line telephone service is not cost effective for the local telecommunications service provider, so is typically not a viable option. For at least the foregoing reasons, the local telecommunications service providers desire maintaining wireline telecommunications services to residences.